My Kippilä, the credit defender of the national floorball team, is recovering from his knee surgery in February. We hope to return to the playing fields in October-November.
One of the credit players of the Finnish national floorball team My Kippilä experienced tough moments at the turn of January and February. The anterior cruciate ligament of Kippilä’s knee, who plays in the Swedish league, broke during the training of his club team from Umeå, Team Thorengruppen.
Kippilä had already hurt his knee in the national team EFT tournament in October last year. He had returned to the playing fields and won the Champions Cup of the club teams in Lempäälä.
The return to the field, however, remained a torso, when a knee injury took him to the operating table.
– The knee was operated on at the beginning of February. The season was interrupted just when the playoffs would have started, Kippilä times.
Thorengruppen won the Swedish championship, but Kippilä couldn’t get on the field anymore.
– It was painful to watch the games from the sidelines, when you always wanted to play them. I tried to encourage the team when I couldn’t really do anything else, Kippilä remembers last spring.
Kippilä’s extension to Thorengruppen was announced a couple of weeks ago. The Finnish defender will remain on the sidelines even from the first matches of next season.
– The operation was successful. The prognosis is good and the beginning of rehabilitation has gone well. If everything goes well, we should be able to play in October-November, explains Kippilä.
Knee injuries have become all too familiar to My Kippila. Kippilä’s knee sprained already in the spring of 2019, when he played for KAIS Mora in the final match of the Swedish Superliga. The diagnosis was harsh: torn anterior cruciate ligament.
– There is no more pain in the knee and I have received permission to run. Running, pounding, cycling. I can already do quite a lot of things normally, Kippilä explains.
“It would be damn cool to win the world championship”
26-year-old Kippilä has been playing in Sweden since 2015. He couldn’t imagine a better environment to play floorball.
– I’ve enjoyed myself, it’s been nice. I see that Sweden is the right place to play for my development. There are tough teams against. Thorengruppen is a top organization, everything is taken care of to the last detail, Kippilä praises.
When asked about his future goals, Kippilä has one wish that rises above the others.
– The number one thing is to stay healthy, he emphasizes.
Sweden has dominated the floorball women’s World Championships and has won every championship since 2007. Finland has a lot of duller World Cup medals, but the championship was last celebrated 22 years ago at the 2001 Games.
– It would be pretty damn cool to win the world championship, when we’ve been looking for it for quite a long time. The championship has already been close many times. But Sweden has wider material, so they can afford to choose players, Kippilä opens up why there has been a celebration in Sweden, but not in Finland.
Finland will get the next chance for World Cup gold in December, when the World Cup will be played in Singapore.
The rehabilitation of the knee is still in progress, but now it’s time to enjoy the summer in Porvoo.
– I have always been able to spend my summer in Finland. I will probably return to Sweden in August and I may be able to participate in the team’s training a little, Kippilä opened his future plans.
Kippilä is also known as an orienteering ace, but now he will not be able to participate in Jukola as an orienteer, even though the orienteering classic will be held at his home in Porvoo.